About

Do you love adventures in learning, creating, community, and using your talents to make a difference?

And trying to do all those things with joy?

Me, too!

Whether you want to explore self-directed learning to unschool, homeschool, or to navigate life transitions and recapture the joy of learning for yourself, don’t worry, you are not alone!

Myth Busting:

Learning only counts if experts tell us what and when to learn or grades us or tests us.

Learning is only about academic subjects.

Learning only happens during limited times of days or years of your life.

Are you awake at night thinking:

What are my options? How do you choose? How do you start?

Can you unschool yourself?

Can I/they really learn enough?

Yes, they can!

Yes, you can.

And you can treat learning as an adventure!

Wishing you well on your learning journey,

Lisa

Bio:

Lisa Nalbone is a teacher, writer, and community activist. She is passionately curious and constantly learning, creating, and sharing what she learns to serve as a catalyst for change.

Throughout her life, Lisa has used self-directed, experiential, and connected learning to overcome challenges, create opportunities for personal and professional growth, and to design a life path of meaning and joy.

Lisa discovered early on that challenging assumptions, taking responsibility for learning beyond the limits of a classroom, connecting with mentors + resources, and embracing creativity are keys to transformation and success. Told that college was not for someone like her, she graduated with honors as a first-generation scholarship student from Duke University.

Setting out to explore the world, she quickly learned that degrees don’t define success and not all jobs are fulfilling. She struggled with real lifelong learning tasks: defining success in accordance with one’s values and finding one’s path within the greater community.

Exploring her interests in peace, social justice, and non-violence, she found that learning by doing in the service of community and the willingness to learn from anyone enriched her life and illuminated the path.

Lisa took her learning into the classroom, flipping the model from coercion to choice and sparking students’ drive to learn while she facilitated their skill development. She strengthened her belief in the importance of self-directed learning while exploring homeschooling and unschooling. She gained new insights about learning as lifelong while caregiving during her mother’s learning journey with ALS.

Lisa conducts workshops and talks based on the self-directed learning strategies from her LifeSPARKS Guide and Workbook to help those in transition or who may be questioning their current circumstances or life path. Whether deciding about college or what to do after college, finding oneself between careers, experiencing shifting roles as a parent, or taking on unexpected or uncertain tasks as a caregiver—all can find meaningful and effective ways to embrace their challenges as adventures in learning.